In the United States, over 50% of pets are either overweight or obese. Health risks associated with excessive body weight include diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, cancer, and short life expectancy.
Trillions of microorganisms or microbes colonize the body surface and gastrointestinal (GI) track of their hosts to create a symbiotic relations. The intestinal microbiota plays an essential role in their hosts, including regulations of nutrient absorption, energy homeostasis including fat storage, lipogenesis and fatty acid oxidation and immune-system development. As a result, dysbiosis between the gut microbiota and their hosts have been associated with obesity and other metabolic disorders. More recently, imbalanced intestinal microbiotas have been implicated in many other health issues such as cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, and liver or brain disease. Modification of gut microbiota via nutrition management (e.g. prebiotics, probiotics) to restore the symbiosis with its host may provide various health benefits.
In both humans and rodents, research has suggested that increases in Bacteroidetes (B) to Firmicutes (F) ratio in gastrointestinal microbiota are beneficial to metabolic health. However, it is unclear the same is true in pets.